How Renewable Environment Links Science and Civic Issues

The US has numerous Superfund sites, which by definition contain
highly toxic materials to reclaim yet, often those sites are in
desirable locations for housing and other development. Exploring
how Superfund sites will be redeveloped is an important question to
use to educate students on the sciences (physical and social).
Given the complexity of the problem, two linked courses were ideal
to study the question and a suitable site, Alameda Point (Alameda
NAS) is located in our region (or community). A sociology course
and an environmental science course addressed issues such as
providing housing for the homeless, developing market rate housing,
and remediating the former Navy industrial site, along with
planning new uses for the land. Students were stimulated to
understand basic chemistry, toxicology, and urban, medical and
environmental sociology. Students gained ethical research skills,
learned how to understand official documents and then thought about
the Superfund process policy issues to redevelop these sites.

Superfund Sites and Policy (link to US EPA
www.epa.gov/superfund/index.html)

Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC - reference texts and general
information of numerous NAVY BRAC bases at the new web site
www.navybracpmo.org)

Urban Renewal Policy U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development This site includes the entire range of government
housing planning, including issues of homelessness.
http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/mfh/exp/guide/s8guide.cfm

Public Health Policy US Department of Health and Human Services
http://www.hhs.gov/

The redevelopment of a Superfund site can be developed by other
faculty interested in SENCER formatted courses since Superfund
sites have myriad of environmental problems to solve requiring
expertise from Biology, Chemistry, Geology, along with Sociology,
Political Science, Communications, and other disciplines.
Unfortunately, there are numerous sites on the NPL throughout the
country and students along with the public need to be further
educated on how these sites will be restored to become productive
places in our communities. The lead regulatory agency, U.S. EPA has
also created a video on the redevelopment of some selected
Superfund sites, so students can be provided some positive
examples. In our model learning community, considerable support
from the regulatory agencies was easily obtained since most of
these agencies (U.S. EPA and CAL-EPA) also have public outreach
mandates as a part of their mission. It seems likely that other
college educators could request assistance from personnel at
various regulatory agencies, as well as social service, community
and advocacy agencies and groups concerned with redevelopment sites
in their neighboring communities.

In this learning community, both faculty found many avenues to
integrate the two courses. The students' exposure to the
community/study site facilitated their ability to go out into the
community and learn more outside of class to fulfill their project
work.

Science concepts presented in context

The students were always learning about various aspects of
environmental risk assessment from the first day to the end of the
Urban Environmental Issues course. There was also considerable
overlap with the paired Urban Studies course where the calculus of
risk was a central concept. The students' questions on risk (What
would they be exposed to going to a Superfund site?; When they
performed experiments, what chemicals were considered safe or
unsafe?, etc.) were utilized to explore and learn what a community
may readily accept or challenge in terms of their risks. The Devra
Davis's text1 gave the students a historical context and
demonstrated that society can be in denial with respect to
environmental problems especially if compelling economic factors
are in play.

Students learned the basics of toxicology through reading
government educational documents and lecture/discussion session
with an EPA toxicologist. To begin to grasp the community's concern
about exposure to various chemicals and elements the students were
introduced to basic aspects of atomic and molecular structure,
which lead more insight on chemical reactivity. After some
experiments on chemical reactivity, the students were also directed
to read some lead in paints papers which were very challenging, but
became aware of a problem that unfortunately as a society we think
that this problem has gone away since it has been banned from new
paint. Again, there was a nice tie-in to the sociology course that
our society's commitment to reduce lead exposure went into a muted
phase after removal of lead from automotive fuels with the
misunderstanding that problem was solved. Our students were also
made more aware that while their government can be forthright and
protect them if questions and challenges are not raised then at
times government will not always fulfill these responsibilities.
Furthermore, at times the lack of clear evidence can be utilized to
misconstrue what knowledge is available and in this way, the
students also became aware of the limitations of what scientists
can claim.

Our students became more keenly aware of the lack of clear evidence
after performing a few instructional experiments in the lab and
then performing two field experiments. The class's soil sampling
experiment where a planned nursery site screened for various heavy
metals using a field portable X-ray fluorescence (FP-XRF)
instrument. This experiment was essentially an internal risk
assessment instruction experience since it involved using a rented
FP-XRF with a radioisotope source. In order to make an informed
choice, our students were provided educational materials not only
on how to safely operate the instrument but also on their general
radiation exposure which they routinely gain in their everyday
lives (See ALARA worksheet – attached pdf). The students were
applying the spectroscopic method to quantify the elements and
learning how challenging it can be to survey a site. The resulting
data set was evaluated in a discussion/reflection period with the
EPA toxicologist present and providing critique.

The second field experiment monitoring the ambient levels of NO2
gas was another application of the spectroscopic method in addition
the students became aware that certain sampling method could be
affected by the weather. The class also worked to prepare to share
an experiment with children from the community were basic
principles of chemistry were demonstrated.

In a complimentary fashion, for the sociology course students
tackled relevant social issues at Alameda Point. They went to city
offices, community groups, and other sites to make observations and
collect interviews, and other direct sources including primary data
such as government documents, newspaper clippings, maps and
historical information. Use a sociological focus and insight
student teams examined education, recreation, the formerly homeless
and low-income housing, and the legacy of the Naval base as key
issues. This research results in papers that were the basis for the
team poster boards and videos in the linked science course.